Boccaccio/ the decameron – Flashcards

- Author of the Decameron - Italian humanist - lived in the 14th century

- this book has 10 stories that are told by 10 storytellers over the course of 10 days - the women are the leaders - stories take place during the Black Plague and - narrators want to escape the plague

- Boccaccio exemplifies the "death of the author" - once the book leaves the author it is up to the readers to find their meaning in the stories - compares it to the bible (can be harmful if misinterpreted) - he is empowering the readers and making them central to the way the book is understood - the reader need to understand how to move between reality and fiction

- the mention of galahad in the decameron is a reference to the Arthurian hero but also to Dante's mention of the word in the canto of Paolo and francesca

- Ser Cepparello, commonly known as Ciapelletto, a notoriously wicked man, travels on a business to Burgundy, a region he is unknown in, as a favor to Musciatto Franzesi. Once there, he soon falls terminally ill. The two Florentine brothers who were housing him during his stay bring a friar from a nearby convent to hear his confession and give him his last rites. Ciappelletto proceeds to tell the friar lies about his life that make him seem very pure, while pretending to cringe over venial sins. He is completely believed by the friar, who preaches a sermon on his life after he passes away. The townspeople who hear the sermon believe that he was a holy man and revere him as a saint long after Ciapelletto died. Panfilo is the storyteller of the first tale of the entire collection, which is also the first tale ridiculing then-current practices of the Roman Catholic Church

- Boccaccio is ridiculing the church by showing how gullible human beings are and that a good liar can usually trump any gullible friar - or that even the worst sinner can be a symbol of good through god's will - Cepperello fools the friar just as Boccaccio fools his readers -ultimately about the gift off storytelling

- storytellers and Cepperello are in control of their lives instead of god - they are an example of the Vitruvian man because they are central to the world - show's how rhetoric gives power and shapes the world

- pretends to be mute and goes to work at a convent - nuns take advantage of him and take turns having sex with him - Abbess takes him and has sex with him over and over again until he cannot take it and pretends to be healed - Abbess keeps him at the convent so he won't ruin their reputations

- young poor man is able to use his intelligence to create his own story and destiny - mocks holy figures by emphasizing saintliness even though the convent is corrupt - demonstrates the power of gesture because he cannot speak - boccaccio uses metaphorical language to address sexual situations

- A knight offers to carry Madonna Oretta a horseback with a story, but tells it so ill that she prays him to dismount her. Filomena narrates this tale, which many see as revealing Boccaccio's opinion of what makes a good or bad storyteller

- focusses oh how to tell a good story - good stories produce good results and bad stories produce embarrassing results - oretta shows the correct use of language by a women (wit) which is important for the narrator who says women should keep their remarks short - humor and rhetoric can work together to help someone escape a difficult situation

- fillippa is caught by her husband cheating - she tells the chief she did it but the law is invalid because the law only applies to women and men and women are equal - she claims she has never denied her husband of her body - she uses to wit to convince the court she is right and they change the law to only women who take money for sex as guilty

- witty use of language is able to get someone out of a very serious punishment - laughter helps someone present a dangerous situation in a light fashion to help diffuse the situation

- stories are short - language is metaphorical

- wit is used to get out of difficult situations - rhetoric is how you succeed highlighting humanism

- Boccaccio's Decameron is written in a feministic approach at a time when women were socially lower than men - the women are the leaders and are the majority of the storytellers in the decameron - Boccaccio uses the book to encourage and give power to women who are in love and alone in their rooms - he portrays the women storytellers intelligent and his female characters as more cunning and stronger than the men

- because he reflected back on other humanists work to further his knowledge such as Dante and Petrarch - his characters and storytellers are in control of their lives instead of god - they are also central to the world portraying the same mindset as the Vitruvian man - shows how rhetoric is extremely powerful and can shape the world